All posts tagged ‘self publishing’

There is this point in the development of children where for a moment you no longer want them to stay young and innocent, but you want them to grow up just a little bit. This point is when they have begun to read a bit, are showing an interest in your interests, but most of your favorite sci-fi and fantasy worlds are still out of reach. So, you look for things to bridge that gap, to maintain an interest so they can easily transition from The Hobbit to The Silmarillion. The problem is that the fantasy and sci-fi materials for that transition age are few and far between. This was the problem facing Henry Herz. So, he wrote his own fantasy children’s book.

The book is called Nimpentoad and in true geek father tradition, he didn’t write it alone. With the help of his then five and seven year old sons, Henry set out to at least write a book he could enjoy with his children in both the creative process and reading. What Henry didn’t fully anticipate was how involved the kids would be in the creation of not only the character names, but plot lines and the overall look and feel of the book. Collaborating with illustrator Sean Eddingfield, the kids had final art approval. Very risky, but the gambit paid off.Continue Reading “Young Fantasy Authors Enter World of Self-Publishing With Nimpentoad” »

As a long-time science-fiction fan, I grew up loving monthly journals like Analog and Asimov’s. Every month brought a smorgasboard of new stories from the best writers in sci-fi which I and my friends greedily devoured. Now, as the bright future imagined in those pulp pages becomes reality, reader subscriptions continue to fall off, and print journals seem to be spiraling down into a black hole of obsolescence. Thanks to the Kindles, iPads, Nooks, and other e-readers, it’s a Brave New World out there for authors, publishers, and readers alike.

A friend of mine recently went through the process of self-publishing a book of his. Given that his book is written for young adults and the entire self-publishing process is so technologically oriented, I was eager to interview him for GeekDad.

So, without further adieu, here is Chris Loblaw talking about his book, Witchkids:

GeekDad: Please give us the nutshell description of Witchkids.

Chris Loblaw: WitchKids is an adventure story with magic-wielding teenagers, mysterious visitors from strange places, an errant spell gone wrong, and a skulking and scarred villain who madly quests for power.

GD: Please tell us a bit about yourself and how you ended up writing a book.

CL: Me? Hmm. I’m a strange mix of disparate elements. I was in the IT field for 7 years before being downsized, and I took that opportunity to become a stay-at-home dad with my 3-year-old Max. And without the noise and clutter of an unfulfilling day job, I finally had the capacity to put a concerted effort into my writing. As an experiment, I decided to blog the chapters of the book as I wrote them, trying to stick to a schedule of one chaptter every two days. Having an audience really motivated/forced me to follow the schedule. After Finishing the story and taking a short break over the holidays, I edited the book and put it up for sale.